


Gun Shy

by Daegaer



Series: Problems in Navigation [12]
Category: Weiß Kreuz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Assassins & Hitmen, M/M, Psychic Abilities, Slavery, Space Opera, Spaceships, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-08-05 20:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16374509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: The crew see Ran as one of them. Crawford doesn't approve.





	Gun Shy

Crawford sat idly on the bridge, waiting to be relieved. Another ten minutes, he thought, and he could get a cup of tea and go and chat with the crew. Another twenty-seven hours and the slow crawl to jump point would finally be over. Keeping to civilian speeds was something he really hated getting used to. He closed down the strategy game he had been playing - even seeing several moves ahead couldn't make it anything other than boring. Instead he keyed in his security override and flicked through the ship's visual system, amusing himself by checking on the crew's activities. Schuldig: lying on his bunk, headphones on. Jens: downing a cup of tea in the galley in readiness for sitting in boredom on the bridge. Nanami: singing to herself in the navs' quarters. Nagi and Ran: huh. Just Nagi in Engineering, doing something obscure. He flicked through the med station, Farfarello's quarters, the gunnery turrets, the hold – mocking himself as he did so – and paused at the ship's armory. Farfarello: seated at the bench, a blaster pistol from the locker stripped down before him, and Ran hanging round looking interested. _Do I want the Nav messing around with firearms?_ he thought, frowning. It didn't seem like a good idea.

"Captain," Jens said from the doorway. "You're off."

"The excitement was getting too much for me," Crawford said, stretching. "Everything's in order, no other ships are within fifteen hours' system crawl of us, we're still holding perfect course, I have nothing at all of interest to report."

"Sounds good," Jens said.

"Yeah," Crawford said. "Enjoy the next few hours." He headed down to the armory. Coming up quietly, he found Ran now leaning on the bench, peering into the workings of another pistol.

" –of utter shite," Farfarello was saying vehemently. "This, for example –" he brandished a battery pack, "This is the standard official battery, and you're lucky to get four shots out of it. The last one would barely knock an old lady over. So what everyone does is take one of these rifle batteries – " he picked up another, "and modify the shit out of it." He slid it into the casing and handed the pistol to Ran. "Of course, now the pistol's a third as heavy again, but you're not going to run out of fire in a fight. You will get whipped for using non-standard equipment if an officer decides to notice, of course."

"Why wouldn't you just be issued better batteries?" Ran said, gingerly weighing the pistol in his hand.

"They cost more, and some arsewipe who never fired a gun in their life is in charge of the military budget," Farfarello said. "Which means that if we run into regular troops they _may_ be obeying weapons regulations and we'll have better personal firearms." He took the pistol back and put it on the bench. "You've watched me strip a couple of these down to clean them. Now you do it."

That was enough, Crawford thought, as Ran hesitantly put his hands on the blaster. Farfarello held a hand up behind Ran's back, signaling, _Wait_. Crawford paused; it was too much to expect he had come up undetected behind his gunner. Well, if Farfarello thought it was worth seeing, he'd wait. Ran slowly took the pistol apart, piece by piece, at a rate that would have earned him a beating as a recruit on the _Terror_.

"Not bad," Farfarello said. "Now put it back together."

"Farfarello, could I ask you something?" Ran said, his eyes firmly on his work.

"I guess so. It's about the scars, right?"

Ran went scarlet and dropped the battery pack as Farfarello laughed dryly.

"That's always the topic when someone asks like that. It was a knife fight when I was younger. You should have seen the other guy! You've got that back to front, the pistol can't fire – better. Anyway, the most interesting thing about the fight was that the girl we were arguing over was really impressed by my enthusiasm."

"You did _that_ over a _girl?_ " Ran said in horror. "Oh – I'm sorry, I meant –"

Farfarello grinned, making his scarred face look worse than usual. "What can I say? I was fourteen." He looked up at Crawford. "I think I'm scaring the Nav, Captain. He's got potential for helping me do weapons maintenance."

"I think he's done enough for today," Crawford said, as Ran spun round.

"Captain!" he said, fumbling his hold on the pistol and putting it swiftly back onto the bench. "I didn't damage anything."

"Come on," Crawford said. "Let Farfarello get on with what he's doing. Go and see if Nagi wants you around."

"Yes, Captain," Ran said. "I'm sorry I was rude," he added to Farfarello.

"Trust me, you'd know if I was offended," Farfarello said in an amused tone.

Crawford watched Ran head towards Engineering and turned back to Farfarello.

"Letting him play with sidearms while you tell him stories? Really?"

"He wants to learn things, and I was bored," Farfarello shrugged. "What's the harm? He's a lot more interesting than Sani ever was."

There it was, Crawford thought. That was the harm. Ran was interesting to his crew, like a proper crewmember who you might tutor, and reminisce with. He needed to put the boy back in his place without causing overmuch tension amongst the crew who wrongly saw him as a person. It was something to think about on the slow trip out to jump.

"Indeed he is," he said, tamping down his irritation. "Interesting is exactly the word."


End file.
